Publication Date: January 25, 2021
It’s 1988 and Belinda is working in a nursing home after having had quite the career driven fall. Her new job is boring and a bit frustrating but the light at the end of that tunnel is her co-worker, Joe for whom she harbors a secret attraction though her insecurity stands in the way of hope. When thefts and worse start to happen at the nursing home, she turns to Joe. When she discovers something disturbing, she has to decide if she’ll go along to get along or if she’ll stand up for what is right and protect her residents.
I received this book for review from the Book Club Reviewer Facebook group.
A Little Birdie Told Me is a snapshot of the 80s. Scott puts great care into the narrative place in time. I graduated high school and started college in 1988. Scott winks at her readers through topical jokes that, given the popularity with young folk of the 80s, will unlikely become dated but could evade a certain audience but then the genre of women’s fiction itself can sometimes be a bit specific. Scott’s humor will have broad appeal. Despite the attention to background detail, A Little Birdie Told Me is a quick read that flows really well. Continue reading A Little Birdie Told Me by Sharley Scott
In The Dirty Parts of the Bible by Sam Torode, it’s 1939 and Tobias is a sheltered 19-year-old from Remus, Michigan when his father, a fire and brimstone Baptist preacher, wraps his car around a tree drunk driver and is blinded. In the preacher’s younger days, he was very accomplished and successful musician, but after being kicked in the head by a cow, he found God and buried the money as he could not live with the idea that it had come from evil work. Now disgraced and on the verge of homelessness, Tobias’s father sends him on a mission to travel from Michigan to Texas to find the money he buried. Along the way, Tobias meets up with the reality of living in the 30s from which he’s long been sheltered.